HAPPY FATHERS' DAY:

Fathers' Day, "traditionally" held on the third Sunday in June may seem like a rather artificial holiday. In fact it is, but its history says that it is more than a simple commercial reaction to the popularity of Mothers' Day. The first Fathers' Day in the USA was held on July 5th in Fairmont, West Virginia, at a church service of the Williams Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church South (now Central United Methodist Church). The service was suggested to the minister by Grace Golden Clayton who was inspired by the deaths of miners in the town of Monongah the previous December due to a mine explosion. Many of the miners were immigrants from Italy. The first Mothers' Day had recently been celebrated at Grafton, West Virginia, 15 miles away.

The more official Fathers' Day celebrations in June originate from the efforts of Mrs. Sonora Smart Dodd of Washington State. Through her efforts the first fathers' Day in the USA was held on July 19th in Spokane, Washington. This was in honour of her father, a civil war veteran, who raised six children on his own after the death of his wife. Mrs. Dodd originally suggested June 5th, her father's birthday, as the official day, but the city was unable to organize matters in time and the event was transferred to the third Sunday in June. This later became the official date.

The idea of a father's day gained great popular support from such figures as the populist William Jennings Bryan and President Woodrow Wilson. In 1924 President Calvin Coolidge recommended it as a national holiday, but it was not recognized as such until President Lyndon Johnson proclaimed it in 1966 for the third Sunday of June of that year. This was, however, only for that year, and it was only made an official yearly holiday in 1972 under president Richard Nixon.

Many countries of the world took up the idea, but the holiday is hardly celebrated on the same day in every country. For a list of the times of Fathers' Day in various countries go to the Wikipedia article on this matter. In some cases such as Taiwan the holiday has been assimilated to older traditions(though mainland China celebrates the Americanized Father's Day on the third Sunday in June). In Taiwan Fathers' Day is on August 8th, the eighth day of the eighth month. In Mandarin the pronunciation of eight is "ba", and "ba ba" (8/8) is very similar to that of the word for "father".

Catholics have traditionally celebrated fathers on St. Joseph's Day, March 19th, but this never became a major public festival. In Germany and to a lesser extent Austria, however, there has been a long standing tradition of 'Vatertag'/'Mannertag'/'Herrentag' on the feast of the Ascension, on the Thursday 40 days after Easter when Christ was supposed to have ascended to God the Father. In Germany this was much of a "day out with the boys" fueled by goodly amounts of beer or wine (depending on the district), but it has lately fallen into disuse. A terrible loss Molly is sure.

One tradition of Fathers' Day is to wear a rose to honour one's father. The rose is to be red if your father is alive and white if he is dead.